MacBook Air Reviews: Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, USA Today [Now Shipping]

The first reviews are in for the MacBook Air:

Wall Street Journal
- "beautiful, amazingly thin computer, but one whose unusual trade-offs may turn off some frequent travelers."
- "difficult to describe just how surprising this feels in your hands"
- "MacBook Air's screen and keyboard were a pleasure to use."
- felt speedy
- Limitations: Sealed in battery, no optical drive, no built in Ethernet jack
- Battery test: screen brightness at maximum, Wi-Fi on, playing endless look of music: 3 hours, 24 minutes.

Newsweek
- "When I slip it in the sleeve of my backpack where my six-pound MacBook Pro usually travels, the pocket still looks empty"
- "diminutive dimensions pretty much evaporate the eternal quandary of whether or not to take your computer along with you."
- Doesn't get as hot as other Apple laptops.
- Max hard drive space is 80GB; no 160GB option due to thinness of machine.

USA Today
- "remarkably sturdy-feeling machine, especially given its size and weight"
- Not ideal for everyone (due to known limitations, non-replaceable battery, limited ports, etc..)
- "Jobs told me last week that Apple considered [adding 3G mobile broadband] but that adding the capability would take up room and restrict consumers to a particular carrier. Through a USB modem, he says, you can still subscribe to wireless broadband with your favorite carrier."
- Battery test: surfed web, used Remote Disk, wrote: 3 hours, 40 minutes.
- don't expect Air to be someone's only computer.

Readers who have ordered a MacBook Air continue to wait in this discussion thread. Meanwhile, friend-of-Apple John Mayer already has one. One reader's MacBook Air has shipped and is due for delivery by Friday.